Solid Rock Church Sermons

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how Abraham and Isaac’s story ends with a promise. The promise God makes to Abraham is fulfilled in Christmas. Like Abraham and Isaac’s journey, Jesus’ birth at the manger is the beginning of His difficult journey of trust, obedience and sacrifice. As Jesus lived out His life on earth, every day was one more step in His journey up the mountain toward the altar of the cross, where He laid down His life as the perfect substitute sacrifice for us. The Bible promises that all who trust in Jesus will be saved. This is God’s promise to Abraham and this is God’s promise to you. The real meaning of Christmas is this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how Abraham and Isaac’s story continues to point us toward Jesus. As he constantly walked in obedience and trust, Abraham obeyed God all the way to the point of offering his son Isaac as a burnt offering. From the beginning of man’s relationship with God in the Garden, God’s law has prescribed death as the requirement for sin. So, for hundreds of years, the nation of Israel offered sacrificed animals as an atonement for their sins. Later on in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah opens his prophesy by expressing how God is no longer satisfied with the sacrifices of animals. He goes on to prophesy about how God would send a new king, in the lineage of David, to deal with sin in an unexpected way. This new king would become a servant who would be rejected, pierced, crushed, wounded, and killed as a sacrifice and ransom for many. This Messiah King would be like a lamb being led to the slaughter. In the book of Romans, Paul reminds us that Jesus w

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the heart of what it means to truly trust God. In Genesis 22, we see how Abraham’s trust in God compelled him to continue his journey to sacrifice Isaac, even in the midst of uncertainty. At this point in the journey, Abraham had no indication that God was going to provide a substitute sacrifice. Abraham trusted God because he believed that God was in control and able, even if it meant resurrecting Isaac back to life. Abraham obeyed God because he believed that God was trustworthy to fulfill everything He promised and do what was right and good. In Genesis 22, we see foreshadowing of what Jesus would do several thousand years later. Christmas is about celebrating the obedience of Jesus, as He stepped away from His throne and entrusted Himself to His Father, to be born as a baby in a manger. Jesus wasn’t entrusting Himself to Mary and Joseph; He was entrusting Himself to His Father. We have been called to follow Jesus’ example of entrusting our

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at a portrait of true obedience through the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. God approached Abraham to test, refine and solidify his faith by asking him to give up his one and only son, whom he loved dearly. When God calls for Abraham’s attention, His authority is rooted in who He is, not what He is asking for. Similarly, Abraham’s obedience is rooted in his understanding of who God is BEFORE God asks for anything. Abraham’s response of “Here I am” conveyed his readiness to hear from and obey God. Likewise, when God calls us, it is less about where we are going and more about Who is calling us there. Additionally, we see a foreshadowing of the cross in Abraham and Isaac’s story. This wouldn’t be the last time God would ask someone to give up a beloved one and only son; the next time He would ask it of Himself. Through feeling the weight of what God asked of Abraham, we can better understand the weight of the sacri

In the sermon this past Sunday, we recognized how easy it is to affirm the goodness of God in general terms. It’s easy to proclaim God’s goodness when things are going well but it becomes much more difficult when our plans and our lives seem to be going backward on a daily basis. The Psalmist David reminds us that, no matter our life circumstances, fear of the Lord leads us to a heart of worship. We are called to praise God, not just with our mouths but with every fiber of our being. The fear of the Lord produces continual praise, commitment, personal obedience, and knowing and trusting in the goodness of God and all He is.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how God redeems our suffering for our good. In James 1, God calls Christians to find joy in suffering because He is redeeming what was intended to bring us harm and using it to lead us to something better. God is using suffering to expose where our faith is diluted by doubt and where it is rooted in false doctrine, in order to bring to completion the work that He began in our lives. Redemption is the miraculous process of restoring something to better than it was. God is using the hardship, trials and suffering in our lives to lead us to something better. God is refining and stabilizing our faith, solidifying our doctrine, and using Gospel-saturated community to redeem our suffering and lead us to full maturity in Christ.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel calls and empowers Christians to wage war against the sin that we face in our daily lives. In Romans 8, we see that the Holy Spirit leads us into battle. The war for our souls has been decisively won with one very specific battle victory: the resurrection of Jesus. However, the war has yet to come to an end and we fight this war in small battles with sin everyday. As Paul reminds us, the battle with sin is a battle of the affections. The reason we still struggle with sin is that we love it too much and Jesus too little. It’s not enough to want Jesus; we must love Him more than we love our sin. We love sin because it makes us promises, offers temporary relief to pain, and brings us momentary pleasure. Jesus offers us something better: His love. Romans 8 reminds us that nothing cans separate us from the love of Christ. Jesus makes us a better promise and offers us the comfort of His never-ending presence in the midst of the battle. The Gospel

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the forgiveness we receive from God should compel us to readily forgive our neighbor. In Matthew 18, Jesus uses a parable to tell Peter that there should be no measure to the forgiveness we extend to one another. The debt we owe God for our sins is immeasurable and impossible to fathom ever paying back in 10,000 lifetimes. Yet He freely offers His forgiveness. When we consider forgiving one another, there is no comparison between the moral violation of sinning against us and the moral violation of sinning against an infinitely Holy God. Jesus isn’t minimizing the pain a person experiences when someone is sinned against; He is maximizing the chasm between sins committed against us and the sins we commit against God. There is no comparison. When we try to fathom God’s immeasurable forgiveness toward us, our hearts can’t help but become stirred with gratitude and a readiness to forgiven others, without keeping a record.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel informs and impacts the way we pray. In Matthew 6, Jesus lays out a framework for how His followers should pray, in light of the Gospel. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we are not praying to a far-off, unknown spiritual being; we are praying to our Heavenly Father. Our familial bond to God means that we are praying to One who loves us and in whom we can trust. At the same time, Gospel-saturated prayers are tempered with a sense of awe and wonder. We pray confidently and intimately with God because He is our Father, while never losing sight of the truth that our Heavenly Father is also the Creator and sustainer of the universe. Prayer should be an everyday journey into the awe and wonder that comes from intentionally stepping into the presence of an infinitely Holy God. All of this is made possible only by the grace of Jesus.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel impacts the way we view our money and possessions. In Matthew 13:44, we learned that the Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest treasure a person can find. In fact, the Kingdom is so valuable that the person who finds Him willingly and joyfully trades allegiance with every earthly treasure out of the joy of finding Him. He is infinitely more valuable than anything else we can find in our lives. Jesus tells us that whatever our treasure is will hold the position of “primary stakeholder” in our hearts and will ultimately become our master. When Jesus becomes our ultimate treasure, our ultimate object of worship, our master and our King, we are free to receive His provisions and blessings with joy, while holding them with the loose grip of wise stewardship and sacrificial generosity.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel impacts our physical health. Because of our sin nature and ever-present battle with our flesh, we have a tendency to see our bodies as irrelevant to spiritual living. As we saw in 1 Corinthians 6, Jesus died and resurrected that we might experience the eternal resurrection of our physical bodies. Therefore, our bodies matter to Jesus. Our physical bodies were bought, with a price, by the death of Jesus. The sins you commit in your body have been atoned for and the residue of your sins will be completely cleansed from your resurrected body. The Bible calls us to steward our bodies for the glory of God. We should see our physical bodies as the means by which we live out the mission of Jesus on earth for God’s glory. Therefore, we should strive to live healthy lives in order to live out our redemptive potential as followers of Jesus.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we continued the Everyday Gospel series and looked at how the Gospel impacts our work. In Genesis 1 and 2, we see that God created human beings to flourish through work. As a part of God’s original design, untainted by sin, work is the cultivating and harvesting of God’s creation in order to receive God’s good provision. Because of sin, the way humans view and interact with their work became marred and distorted. Rather than being a joy through which we receive God’s good provisions, work has become a burden, full of pain and obstacles. However, through the Gospel, God is restoring our hearts to see our work the way He designed it to be. As Christians, we should work hard and honestly, not for wages or recognition or to make it across the finish line into retirement. The grace of Jesus stirs our hearts to give great effort to our work for God’s glory and the joy of cultivating, creating and keeping as part God’s design for human flourish

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the Biblical mandate for children to obey their parents and for parents to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This is a calling to walk in faith toward complete restoration of what was before The Fall. Parents, the purpose in disciplining your children is to imitate your Heavenly Father. Your children should see a reflection of their relationships with God through their relationships with you. When they receive discipline and instruction, tempered in patience and love, you are teaching them how to interact with their heavenly Father. When you engage in Biblical parenting, you and your children both have the opportunity to see a beautiful reflection of who God is, stirring your hearts for worship of your Heavenly Father. When you fail as a parent, you personally experience what your children need to experience when they make mistakes: patience, love, forgiveness and gentle correction. As the Gospel covers you with grace in your pa

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how gender is part of God’sdesign for humans flourishing. Our gender-based identities are inherently part of the Imago Dei and the way we interact within our genders reflects the way that the Godhead interacts within Himself; This is especially true in marriage. The Bible presents a blueprint for marriage that leads to human flourishing and true joy. We are all called to mutually submit to one another and we are all called to submit to Jesus. Wives, as a part of their specific roles as image bearers, are called to also submit to their husbands. A wife’s submission to her husband is a reflection of the Church’s submission to Christ.  Husbands are called to lay down their lives (literally and metaphorically) for their wives. Just as Jesus lived His life in sacrifice for the sake of the Church, husbands are to do the same in their everyday lives. The ultimate purpose of marriage is to serve as areflection

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel shapes how we invest our greatest commodity in this life: our time. Every calendar entry reflects our personal theology on happiness. Our commitments govern how we spend our time; How we spend our time reflects what we give our lives to; And what we give our lives to is guided by the answer to one primary question, “What will make me the happiest?” The lie of the ‘American Dream’ is that I will be happy if I can graduate from high school, go to college and make good grades, find a nice-looking, easy-to-get-along-with spouse with whom I can raise well-mannered, nice looking kids, live in a nice home in a nice neighborhood, and drive a nice car to my fulfilling job; All of this until the day when I will glide into retirement with ease, die quietly in my sleep and not go to hell. The problem isn’t that these are evil things, but that they can’t deliver on the promise to bring us true happiness. True happiness is found

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel is good news in our justification and sanctification. Trusting in Jesus, and His work alone, changes who we are. And because the Gospel changes who we are, it changes what we do and how we live. Jesus says that he who hears and believes the Gospel is like a farmer planting seeds in good soil; genuine faith produces good fruit. James says the same thing more specifically when he says that genuine faith in Jesus will produce good works.  Genuine faith in the Gospel saves us and leads us to reflect God’s moral character and live for God’s perfect will. The Gospel is good news in our salvation and in our sanctification; it changes who we are (justification) and the way we live our lives through good works (sanctification).

Last Sunday, we began our new series: The Everyday Gospel. We started off the series by looking at how the Gospel shapes our identities and the way we see ourselves and each other. Unlike the cultural worldview that determines your identity based on what you do and how well you perform what you do, the Gospel declares that who we are is 100% based on who God is. We are image bearers. In the same way that God cannot be understood apart from the Trinity, who you are is rooted and reflected in the community to which you belong. As human beings who have been redeemed by the finished work of Jesus and called to unite with other believers, you reflect God’s image: His Character, His Beauty, His Will. You are an image bearer. This is who you are!

In the sermon this past Sunday, we wrapped up the sermon series “Even Sinners Such As I” by looking at how Jesus alone truly satisfies the longing of the human soul. Ironically, as fallen people, we are prone to seek satisfaction in things on Earth that can’t satisfy. In Isaiah 55:1-3 we were reminded that true satisfaction for the soul comes from placing our faith solely in Jesus. Through hearing and believing the Gospel message, our souls find true delight in the life-giving promise of eternal life. This is what drove the Apostle Paul to find delight in forsaking everything he had acquired and accomplished in life in order to take hold of Jesus (Philippians 3:7-8). It is only through faith in Jesus that our souls are truly satisfied.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how we have been set free from our slavery to sin by Christ and we are called to stand firm in that freedom through walking by the Holy Spirit, not giving ourselves, once again, as slaves to sin. As Christ followers, we don’t have to convince God to lead us toward His will. The Holy Spirit is consistently leading us towards holiness, compelling us to live our lives for Jesus and issuing warnings to us when we consider listening to the voice of the flesh. Our conscience is not static; it can be seared by sin and it can be cleaned and renewed by the work of the Holy Spirit. We have been set free from a guilty conscience and bondage to sin in order that we may remain free with a clear conscience, dwelling in the kinship of Biblical community.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how the Gospel frees us from our slavery to idols. In Deuteronomy 4:15-20, God reminds us that anything can become an idol. An idol is anything or anyone that takes the place of “first love” in our lives. Idols are most often the good things that we have received from God that have become ultimate things. Idols draw us away from worshipping God by convincing us to bow down to them and serve them. God rescues us from our idols when we chose to see Jesus as better. When we rest in this truth, Jesus once again becomes our First Love, and our hearts and minds are latched to Him, loosening our grip on our idols.